BURN WITCH BURN (1962) movie review

Burn, Witch, Burn (aka Night of the Eagle) (1962) d. Sidney Hayers (UK)

Terrific screen version of Fritz Lieber’s novel Conjure Wife (first seen as the 1944 Lon Chaney vehicle Weird Woman and then remade in 1980 as the little-seen Witches’ Brew), adapted with verve by the dream team of Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont. Peter Wyngarde stars as a professor who seems to lead a charmed life, only to find out that he does . . . literally. Seems his beautiful bride (Janet Blair) does a little dabbling in the magical arts, and when practical hubby finds out and demands she dispense with her tools of hoodoo, his luck changes and not for the good.

VIY (1967) movie review

Viy (aka Vij) (1967) d. Konstantin Ershov / Georgi Kropachyov (Russia)

This breathtaking flight of dark fantasy, derived from the same Nikolai Gogol story that inspired Mario Bava’s gothic masterpiece Black Sunday, albeit wildly different in tone and content, combines the double charms of rural folktales and overt theatricality. You’re forgiven if you haven’t already seen or heard of it, but after viewing, you’ll likely be wondering, as I did, how it took this long and why someone didn’t clue you in sooner.

GINGER SNAPS (2000) Blu-ray Review

Ginger Snaps (2000) d. John Fawcett (Canada)

This sharp, blackly comic tale turns the old shapeshifting legend on its head, creating a metaphor for a young woman’s “change” at puberty, with the moon’s cinematic lycanthrope effects mirroring that of the menstrual cycle. Screenwriter Karen Walton’s crackling, acid-tongued, often hilarious dialogue perfectly captures the cynical tone of two outcast teenage sisters with a morbid fascination with death. When the eldest, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle), is attacked by a werewolf (a harrowing, superbly shot sequence), the film proceeds to reflect her changing from girl to woman with her transformation from human to animal.

THE NIGHT DIGGER (1971) movie review

Night Digger, The (1971) d. Alastair Reid (UK)

Curious, moody, secluded-English-country-manor chiller about a spinster (Patricia Neal) and her overbearing blind mother (Pamela Brown) whose humdrum lives are disrupted by a motorcycle-riding drifter seeking work as a groundskeeper (Nicholas Clay, who achieved cult status a decade later as Lancelot in Excalibur and Oliver Mellors in Lady Chatterly’s Lover). Despite her adopted daughter’s protests, the elder woman invites the mysterious youth to stay on – after all, it would be nice to have a man around the place, especially with this spate of ghastly murders going on in the area....

Fool's Views (6/23-6/29)

No...more...Nazisploitation. Got it?

Back again, my friends!

After the previous week’s gluttony, I found myself not only cleaning up the damage such a spree can cause (i.e. writing reviews), but wriggling out from under the weight of screener copies that had recently landed in my lap. To further complicate matters, I made a trip to the good ol’ Chicago Public Library to secure a few civilian flicks that had captured my fancy while on our recent road trip to the Colorado Plateau.

Finally, I felt compelled to round out the earlier Nazisploitation viewings by visiting (and revisiting) the pioneers of the subgenre, so those got chucked in the pile along with a Godzilla fan film for dessert. All in all, another diverse trip down the twisty, thorny path of terror. Never a dull moment.

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!

ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS (1975) movie review

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975) d. Don Edmonds (Canada)

Inspired by the notorious real-life tales of Ilse Koch, a wife of a Nazi commandant who reportedly kept lampshades made from the skin of concentration camp victims, this Canadian exploitation sensation was much more interested in showing female flesh than shedding it. Former nude pin-up model Dyanne Thorne and her bustastic assets are put on full display as the titular tyraness of terror, turning women into experiments of extended torture while making men slaves in her bedroom.

THE BABY (1973) Blu-ray Review

The Baby (1973) d. Ted Post (USA)

After taking on the curious case of “Baby” Wadsworth (David Manzy), a grown man developmentally arrested at nine months, recently widowed social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer) suspects criminal negligence. As her interest grows increasingly personal, a war of wills develops between Ann and the zealously protective Wadsworth women, who will stop at nothing to keep their family together.

BLOODY MOON (1981) Blu-ray Review

Bloody Moon (1981) d. Jess Franco (Germany)

Gorgeous Angela (Olivia Pascal) joins her comely group of lasses at a remote spa/language school (nice combo, that) in Spain, unaware that the exotic locale was the site of a brutal murder five years prior. Wouldn’t you know it, the offending party, Miguel (Alexander Waechter), has just been released from a mental institution into the care of his sister Manuela (Nadja Gerganoff), the smokin’ hot chiquita with whom he previously shared an incestuous relationship. But wait, there's more! Further complicating matters is the fact that Manuela runs the school with the handsome Alvaro (Christopher Brugger), but is openly hated by her crippled countess aunt (Maria Rubio) who holds the purse strings. Needless to say, when pretty girls start turning up dead, there are suspects aplenty, including students, teachers, studly tennis instructors (Peter Execoustos), and drooling mongoloid red herrings.

DEADLY EYES (1982) Blu-ray Review

Deadly Eyes (aka Night Eyes) (1982) d. Robert Clouse (Canada)

Based on James Herbert’s classic novel Rats (and an earlier script from Lonon Smith), this hilariously earnest yet surprisingly bloody “B” ratfestation flick falls somewhere between the real-life rodent hordes of Willard and the costumed creepers of The Killer Shrews. Enter the Dragon director Clouse keeps the action moving along at a lively pace, perhaps to distract from the not-quite-convincing dachshunds-in-rats-clothing (no kidding) and the close-ups of snarling hand puppets.

BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981) Blu-ray Review

Bloody Birthday (1981) d. Ed Hunt (USA)

Gun-for-hire Hunt, who scripted alongside Barry Pearson, whipped up this fanciful tale of three children born during a solar eclipse on June 9, 1970, in the sleepy burg of Meadowvale, CA. Trouble is, at least according to our astrology-loving heroine Joyce (Lori Lethin), the sun and moon were also in the path of Saturn (which governs human emotions), leaving our diminutive trio devoid of any sense of morality. Now, just before their shared 10th birthday, they’ve begun strangling, shooting, and shoveling amorous teens in vans and cemeteries and bumping off town elders one by one. (Wait, why’d they wait until now to exhibit murderous tendencies? Oh, never mind.)

CHRYSALIS (2014) movie review

Chrysalis (2014) d. John Klein (USA)

In 2038, young couple Joshua (Cole Simon) and Penelope (Sara Gorsky) make their way across the blasted landscape of a dying world, scavenging and surviving whilst avoiding the infected mutants that now sit atop the food chain. As winter falls hard, the pair encounters another human survivor, Abira (Tanya Thai McBride), who explains that she is en route to rendezvous with another, larger group. As two becomes three, jealousies and conflicts arise, while their cannibalistic foes grow ever hungrier . . . and nearer.

VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2010) DVD Review

Equal parts cautionary tale and gorehound primer, this "must-have" three-disc release from Severin (originally released in the UK by Nucleus Films) delivers a one-stop shop for everything relating to the UK’s shameful period of censorship in the early 1980s, where 72 horror and exploitation film titles were deemed capable of debauching the free-thinking minds of anyone who might encounter them. These were the “Video Nasties.”

Interview with GODZILLA: BATTLE ROYALE writer/director Billy Dubose!!

We’ve seen Godzilla fever sweeping the world in the wake of the 2014 Legendary Pictures effort, but for some, that burning love for oversized irradiated lizards and their ilk has been a lifelong passion.  Case in point: Billy Dubose, who has taken his fandom to a skyscraper-stomping new level. The 31-year-old native of Elmhurst, IL, is the writer, director, producer, editor, star, and driving force behind what has to be one of the most ambitious kaiju fan films of the 21st century, Godzilla: Battle Royale.

Fool's Views (6/16 – 6/22)

"If you could only see what I've seen with your eyes...."

Hello, fellow friends and fiends,

As Faithful Readers might recall, the last FV entry (covering a full four weeks) was still a fairly dry season. Well, the juice got loose over the following seven days, as the Doc burned through nearly a full score of flicks, with Severin’s recent release of The Definitive Video Nasty Guide (review coming soon) kicking off a weekend-long quest to “do the Nasty,” knocking out 9 of the remaining 10 (leaving only Jess Franco’s Women Behind Bars yet to be seen).

In the process, I also knocked out a trio of Naziploitation “classicks,” which in turn led to a few more filthy Fuhrer flicks in the week that followed. I was further blessed to witness a classic of Polish cinema – on the big screen, no less – and a couple of new offerings from regular festival faves Alex de la Iglesia and Ti West; one good, one…well, less good.

That’s what I call coming back from a slump with a vengeance! As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!

MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS (1961) movie review

Mother Joan of the Angels (1961) d. Jerzy Kawalerowicz (Poland)

When a tormented, self-doubting priest (Mieczyslaw Voit) is sent to a small Polish country convent suspected of being under Satan’s sway, he encounters a myriad of demons both personal and external. Shot in exquisitely sharp black-and-white, this is not your standard exploitation programmer, but rather a deeply ambiguous examination of faith and sin, with Lucyna Winnicka’s supposedly possessed titular Mother Superior the key to salvation or damnation.

LAKE PLACID (1999) Blu-ray Review

Lake Placid (1999) d. Steve Miner (USA)

Ah, Black Lake, Maine, where women are shrill, heroes are dull, asses are smart, and the sailor-swearing incarnation of Betty White is born. Another high-profile 1999 Fox horror effort that failed to find an audience (see: Ravenous), TV heavyweight David E. Kelley’s (Ally McBeal, Boston Legal) quip-laden dialogue must have looked great on the page, but without several seasons to flesh them out, his quirky, snarky characters barely register as human beings.

BEYOND THE GRAVE (2010) movie review

Beyond the Grave (aka Portos dos Mortos) (2010) d. Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro (Brazil)

Set in “Another Time, Another Place,” we are introduced to a mysterious black-suited, bespectacled, two-fisted ex-cop known only as “The Officer” (Rafael Tombini) who crosses paths with a young teenaged couple, a sardonic youth named Shooter (Ricardo Seffner) and his mute female companion Nina (Amanda Lerias). We learn that Officer is in pursuit of The Dark Rider, a body-jumping demon straight out of Fallen, The Other Side, or The Hidden (minus the slimy alien worm) that possesses each mortal vehicle until it expires and then bounces to the next and nearest. Continuing in this fashion, the Rider, the Ultimate Evil, is immortal and it falls to our triumvirate of antiheroes to somehow take him out.

WITCHING & BITCHING (2013) movie review

Witching & Bitching (aka Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi) (2013) d. Alex de la Iglesia (Spain)

Next to Pedro Almodovar, Spain’s most celebrated modern cinematic provocateur is the fearlessly inventive Iglesia, who does not disappoint with his latest exercise in energetic excess, a tale of crooks, crones, and ancient crockeries, er, prophecies.

DEPORTED WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION (1976) DVD Review

Deported Women of the SS Special Section (1976) d. Rino di Silvestri (Italy)

Relative newcomers to the Nazisploitation subgenre (such as myself) might be unfamiliar with this wicked little trifle, but according to those in the know, it stands as one of the more successfully rendered entries in the short-lived movement. Though never reaching the gleeful excess of Gestapo’s Last Orgy or Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, it robustly rattles through the requisite nasty bits (nudity, lesbianism, torture), and is elevated immeasurably by John Steiner’s scene-stealing turn as the twisted, tormented camp commandant, Herr Erner.

THE FINAL TERROR (1983) Blu-ray Review

In trying to be clever and concise by updating my previous review for the underrated forest slasher, I not-quickly-enough realized that the post wouldn't show up as a recent entry, and darn it, people need to know they can actually SEE the film now (in more ways than one). Head over this way to read the good news!

THE FINAL TERROR (1983) Blu-ray Review

http://horror101withdrac.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-final-terror-1983-movie-review.html